


It's Something, Which May or May Not be Better than Nothing

by imperfectkreis



Series: Somewhere Between [2]
Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: F/F, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-20
Updated: 2015-01-20
Packaged: 2018-03-08 09:17:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,614
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3203945
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imperfectkreis/pseuds/imperfectkreis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>How do two people find each other anyway? Quietly, in shared time together, and trying to fight the feeling of displacement brought about by changing circumstances.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It's Something, Which May or May Not be Better than Nothing

The ale isn’t always a cold as Harding might like, but it is available and sits well on her tongue. Doesn’t much matter to her that it’s seven in the morning. Maryden sings at her post, despite the early hour, but has no lute in her hands. Stolen, she says. Who would be unhinged enough to steal a bard’s lute? Harding goes back to her drink and her breakfast. 

It’s only a few days until she’ll be criss-crossing Thedas again. She’s only here awaiting deployment orders, kicking her feet up for a spell. It feels good to have warm food in her stomach and to know she’ll spend tonight in a cot rather than on the ground. Some of the other scouts tease her, racist garbage about being close to the earth. She mostly narrows her eyes and doesn’t correct them. Some of them realize their mistake and others don’t. There are bigger things at stake than their ignorance. Best that they all just get along for now, even if she does sometimes want to put an arrow through their backs as they march their horses forward.

“He-ya!” It’s Sera, calling out over the edge of the upstairs balcony, leaning over it precariously to catch Harding’s eye. She waves her arms and nearly topples over. It’s such a loose gesture it takes Harding a moment to realize it’s intended for her.

“Sera?” Harding gets out between mouthfuls of egg.

Luckily the blonde elf doesn’t fall over the side of the railing, but she does come bounding down the stairs. The barman is already setting out a plate for her next to Harding’s. He knows well enough to refill the dwarf’s mug as well.

Sera is bright eyed and her face flushed. She must have only just gotten out of bed, but she breathes like she’s been running circles in that plush room she has upstairs. Rumors circulate about that, that maybe she’s the Inquisitor’s pet. Harding doesn’t think that likely. Though the elf might like to be. 

“I was thinking yeah,” Sera stuffs forkfuls in her mouth and talks at the same time. Harding has to look away because it’s a bit disgusting. “You wanna go shooting later?”

Harding swallows down her eggs and chases it with ale so she’s got time to think. Normally she wouldn’t be opposed, but she’s not entirely comfortable with Sera’s noisy, haphazard presence. And when she's not noisy and haphazard, she's entirely too pretty for her own good. Harding doubts anyone ever could be at ease in Sera's presence. But she does like shooting, she’s good at it and she naturally likes things she’s good at. 

“I suppose so. Nothing else for me to do today.”

“Tits! Great!” She jumps up and slams her fists on the table, making their plates shake. “I’ll set up the targets. Lady Trevelyan always says no.”

Oh, so of course, Harding is just a substitute. It shouldn’t bother her, somehow it does. “I didn’t realize the Inquisitor shoots.”

“Oh you know, she doesn’t. But I’ve been giving her lessons, yeah? Never know when it will come in handy. I think she would be good at it.”

Harding grunts and finishes off her ale. When she turns around, Sera has already vanished. It never occurred to her Sera could make such a quiet escape. 

\--

They compete casually for just over an hour. It doesn’t take long for them to abandon the intended, stationary, targets and pick out smaller, quicker things just outside the walls of Skyhold. Rabbits and birds, things they can have for dinner. They are careful not to shoot the Spymaster's ravens as they cross the sky. They mutually decide it is a bit of a draw. But Sera eeks in that she's really the winner. Harding lets her take her victory.

After that they walk. Sera complains that she doesn’t like the wilderness and Harding points out they could still hit the walls of the hold. The elf replies that’s only because they’re stronger than the others take them for. It’s an agreeable sentiment. 

All they have between them to discuss is the Inquisition. 

“I would have thought you’d be heading with the Inquisitor to the Western Approach?” Harding asks, though the same could be said of her. 

“I had another assignment.” Sera blows her bangs away from her eyes and scowls. 

“With Solas and Blackwall?”

“Yeah, those two. And the other one? Grumpy, but not old? I think he was there. Gotta send someone who can see shite right in front of their faces, right?” As they walk she strips leaves from low hanging branches. She tears them apart in her fingers and let them fall to the ground. Her hands never stop. 

“The Inquisitor must trust you a great deal to give you such special assignments.”

“No, no that isn't it. At all. Maybe them, but not me. She just doesn’t think of me very often.” Sera pauses and anger flashes over her features. Or maybe it’s sadness and she’s not adept at distinguishing the two. “Lace…”

Before then it hasn't occurred to her that Sera even knew her given name. For all intents and purposes, she prefers ‘Harding.’ It was her father’s name, a good name, one she will make proud with her work here with the Inquisition. 

“Yes, Sera?”

“Would it be very weird if I kissed you?”

Harding’s mouth feels dry. She’d thought of it, that night weeks ago in the Hissing Wastes, when Sera had sand stuck to her face and looked very sad. When the sky felt like it could come crashing down and crush her at any moment, Between then and now, she hasn’t thought much of it. Hasn’t seen much of Sera. Always in different places at different times. 

“Yeah, I think that would be weird.” 

They keep walking. Sera keeps finding ways to make her hands busy destroying little things in her wake. 

“Do you want to do it anyway?” Sera rushes the words out as if she’s afraid of the answer. 

Harding stops walking and Sera does too. The elf keeps her eyes straight ahead in the distance and Harding wonders if she’s trying to take back her words.

“Did you ask to kiss the Inquisitor too? Does she always say no?” She wants it to sound like a joke, but she is unsure that it does.

“What? No! Eugh, you too? Does everyone still think I’m shagging her?”

Her reaction is so sudden and violent it makes Harding laugh. No way it could be anything but genuine. 

“Yeah, I guess, I’m not in Skyhold much.”

“Even though they know she’s rutting the Commander? They think I’m some sort of...easy.” She sounds frustrated with the situation.

“No one said that, Sera. You just, you know how nobles are.”

"Yeah, I know better than nobles how nobles are, that's for sure."

Dry leaves crunch under their boots, ever forward marching. After this war, Harding doesn't know if she'll be able to go home, be a farm girl and a wife. Raise cabbage and children. Before all this it would have been her greatest wish. Now the world seems so much more than that.

"Yeah, Sera, sure. Let's kiss." It isn't as if it could hurt. People die every day around them. Harding isn't about to go out soon, but she might go out eventually.

Sera smiles and bends at her waist to come down to Harding's level. She never wished to be taller before, but she would like to be face to face with the other woman. Wouldn't make a difference if they were lying down. Maybe next time, oh Maker, she's already thinking about next time when Sera's heavy bangs brush against her forehead. Her lips are pink and wet, she's just licked them. They're soft and full against Harding's thinner ones, a little insistent. Sera's eyes are closed but Harding doesn't dare look away. Her stomach knots and her hands grip Sera's arms, holding her and confirming this is happening. Tastes like breakfast eggs and mint. While she's still unsure how they ended up here, she knows she doesn't want to leave just yet.

All of it is quite chaste in the end, press of lips on lips, Harding's hands on Sera's arms, Sera's hands in her hair, trying to tug it down and loose. Before Sera can pull away, Harding pulls her back, just one more, because any day can be the one that gets them. 

"That was..." Sera starts.

Harding finishes, "Nice, I hope?"

"Yeah, right nice." Sera is smiling, tilting her head to one side and on the verge of laughter. "We should do it again sometime, yeah?"

Part of her job is assessment, reading reports from other scouts, making sense of her own observations, cutting paths and offering solutions. She assesses as many possible plans of action as she can and throws out the silly ideas. Also has to know what ideas are just so crazy the Inquisitor might love them. But she's not a decision maker. That is left to other people. But right now, Harding has to decide.

"How about now, Sera?"

"Yeah!" In her exuberance, Sera knocks them both to the ground. Leaves cushion their fall and Sera ends up on top of her. Harding likes this better. Sera's hair is in her face and her eyes impossibly bright. They roll onto their sides, leaves sticking to their skin. Harding holds Sera's face between her hands and kisses her again. Her fingers curve along the form of her cheeks. 

It's a set of possibilities, and a decision too. Now that it's made, Harding knows she'll make the most of it.


End file.
